The Norman Studios

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In the 1920s, Richard E. Norman (1891-1960) a white filmmaker and distributor of silent films, produced a number of works using all African American casts and crews. This was during the era of a rising racism, including the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. Norman’s feature-length “race films,” such as the “Flying Ace” and “Bull Doggers,” were part of a national movement to portray positive images of blacks, and served as an antidote to the racism of the time.

The Norman Studios in Jacksonville represent the last remaining vestiges of the city’s movie industry that rivaled Hollywood, California, in the early years of filmmaking. They are nationally significant as one of the few remaining intact studios in the country that demonstrate the participation of African American in the early history of filmmaking in the United States.